


Off the Rails

by Chocobroing



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Arguing, Blind Character, Breaking Up & Making Up, Canon Disabled Character, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Violence, F/M, Fighting, Grief/Mourning, Mild Language, everyone is depressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 07:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11076744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocobroing/pseuds/Chocobroing
Summary: After everything went down in Altissia, the growing tension between everyone has finally surfaced and it gets violent. What are they supposed to do when all hope is lost?





	Off the Rails

**Author's Note:**

> I'm as sadistic as the creators of this game. I hate making everyone feel sad but I do it anyways for some reason or another.

Off the Rails

After Noctis finally woke up, the group was heading to the next royal tomb to collect another of Noct’s inheritance. However, everything felt wrong. Lunafreya was dead, Altissia was pretty much destroyed, and Ignis went blind. Because he was blind, they couldn’t travel in the Regalia, which was being held on the train in cargo, and they all were uncomfortable sitting on the train. It felt like the seats were made of metal with no cushions. Eleanor tried to nap but found it impossible because her neck kept hurting. 

During the ride, she got up from her seat next to Gladio and sat next to Ignis, taking his hand in hers. At first, Ignis stiffened but he reciprocated by squeezing her hand to tell her he knew she was there. Ella and Ignis grew closer because she helped take care of him after he went blind. She and Gladio helped Ignis when he needed to do basic things that were impossible to do now. Gladio helped Ignis shower and Ella helped him dress, even though Ignis felt a bit uncomfortable with her seeing his nudity. Even after being blinded, he still held onto his propriety. 

Ella looked over to Noctis, who was stuck in his own world of despair, and felt immense pity. He blamed himself for not being able to save Luna from being killed. She knew that he loved her. Even if the marriage was arranged, he always loved her but didn’t know how to express it. Everyone was silent until Prompto decided to break the suffocating silence. 

“So,” he said, his voice devoid of his usual humor and lightness, “we’re gonna roll through Tenebrae.” 

When Ignis spoke up, he sounded like he was trying to be strong. “Not before visiting the royal tomb in Cartanica,” he added quickly.

“Are you sure you’re up to that, Ignis?” asked Ella in a gentle voice, giving the man next to her a pitying look. 

“The wounds have mended,” he replied in an emotionless voice. “Eyesight’s a matter of time.”

Ella felt like crying because she knew his eyesight wasn’t coming back. That was what the doctor told her and Gladio when they visited to get potions. Ignis only told himself that to keep himself hopeful. Her bottom lip trembled but she didn’t let out a sound. She didn’t need Ignis to hear her crying. She, Ignis, and Prompto bowed their heads as if in prayer and felt their own fog of despair swallow them. 

Suddenly, Ella heard Gladio’s heavy footsteps on the metal floor of the train and stop in between her seat and Noct’s. 

“The hell is wrong with you?” he demanded to Noct in a harsh tone. 

Noctis managed to emerge from his cloud and looked up at Gladio in outrage. “What?” His voice had more emotion in it than it had in the past few weeks. 

“We’re not stopping in Tenebrae,” elaborated Gladio, his anger palpable. “You need to grow up and get over it.” 

That got Noctis out of his seat. “I am over it,” he growled furiously. “I’m here, aren’t I?” 

All of a sudden, Gladio grabbed Noct by his shirt front and got in his face in a threatening manner. “Maybe when you’re not too busy moping,” he hissed, his grip tight on Noct’s shirt, “you can look around and give a shit about someone worse off than you.” 

Ella could feel the tears spring in her eyes and her vision blurred, her bottom lip trembling again. She couldn’t believe this was happening right now. She didn’t know Gladio could be so cruel. She knew he was mourning too but this was not the right way. 

“Let go of me,” demanded Noctis quietly, refusing to look at Ignis. 

“How’s that ring fit ya?” asked Gladio, referring to the Ring of Lucii. “You’d rather carry it around than wear it?”

Noct let out a pain-filled gasp but Gladio wasn’t letting up on his assault. “She gave her life so you could do your duty,” he continued mercilessly, “not so you could sit around feeling sorry for yourself.”

“You guys, that’s enough,” said Ella in an emotional tone, her voice quivering with tears. 

“You don’t think I know that!?” cried Noct, his voice raising in anger. 

“You don’t!” shouted Gladio, booming with fury. “Ignis took one for you too, and for what!?” 

Ignis finally had enough of the fighting. “Enough, Gladio!” he shouted, making everyone freeze for a moment. Ella had no idea he could still shout like that. 

Gladio quit yelling but he didn’t stop heckling Noctis. “You think you’re a king,” he continued cruelly, “but you’re a coward.”

Noct’s fury bubbled to the surface and he roughly pushed Gladio in the chest. “Shut up!” he shouted, grabbing Gladio’s unbuttoned shirt front the same way the other man grabbed his. 

“Don’t do this…!” protested Prompto, getting up to break up the fight. 

Gladio merely pushed Prompto away, making the blonde fall into one of the seats, and kept his burning gaze on Noctis, who was close to tears now. 

“I get it, alright!?” the young king cried out, loudly enough to attract the attention of the other travelers. “I get it!” With unknown strength, he managed to push Gladio away from him, making the taller man stumble back a bit.

“Then get a grip!” shouted Gladio in an equally emotional tone. “Pull your head outta your ass already!” 

Suddenly, Ella hit the arm of the seat she was in and tears poured down her cheeks. “I said enough!” she cried, her breaths coming out as sobbing gasps. 

Prompto, who felt hurt by everything, glanced over to Ella and his expression was full of sadness. He glanced back over to Noctis, who stormed away from the rest of the group with tears pouring down his face. 

“Noct!” called Prompto, trying to call the young king back. 

“Leave him!” hissed Gladio, his voice stopping the blonde in his tracks. 

Ella got up from her seat and glared at Gladio with hate burning in her eyes. “You’re such an ass!” she wept, shoving him on the chest roughly.

“Shut the fuck up, Ella,” he growled, getting in her face. “This is men’s talk.” 

“Excuse me!” she shouted shrilly, causing a few heads to turn in their direction. “You’re not acting like a man, Gladiolus! You’re being cruel, and awful, and picking fights like an adolescent! Noctis is in mourning because he lost someone he loved! Maybe if you stopped being such an ass, you would understand! Of course, you can’t because you are incapable of feeling anything! Even when you learned your father died, you didn’t care! You still don’t!” 

“Shut up!” bellowed Gladio, sounding angrier than she had ever hear him get.

In a flash, he reared his hand back and pain erupted on Ella’s cheek, causing Prompto to let out a shocked gasp. She found herself on the ground, looking and feeling absolutely shocked, tears formed in her eyes again. Prompto came running over and helped her stand up, looking at her cheek, which was covered in an ugly bruise. It was evidence of Gladio’s fury against her. The blonde glared at Gladio, who looked disgusted and furious. 

“What is your problem?” demanded Prompto angrily, wrapping his arms around Ella’s waist in a protective hug. “Is this how you show your affection to your lover now? You just fucking hit her! What is the matter with you!?” 

Ella was shocked a second time because she had never heard Prompto this upset before. Ignis’s sharp voice broke through the air.

“Gladio, how could you do that!?” The anger in Ignis’s voice was palpable. He sounded more upset than Ella had ever heard him. “She is your lover and you hurt her! If Clarus could see you now…” He trailed off, but the disgust was evident in his tone.

“Prompto, Ignis, stop,” she said, trying to calm the two down. 

“No!” shouted Prompto, his glare as sharp as Ignis’s knives. “This bastard hit you, Ella! He had no right to! Only a coward hits a woman for no reason! Is that what you are, Gladio!? A coward!? Your dad would be ashamed!” 

In his anger, Gladio said nothing, turned his back on them, and bounded off in the opposite direction. Prompto helped Ella sit back down next to Ignis and she wept into the blind man’s shirt, trying to keep herself from crying out loud. Ignis wrapped a caring arm around her shoulders and rubbed her back in an effort to quell her shaking. 

“It’s alright, Ella,” he said softly, sounding very much like a father comforting his hysterical daughter. “Gladio just needs to cool down. It’ll be alright.” 

“How could speak that way to Noct?” cried Ella, her chin trembling. “Is he incapable of mourning?"

“Just the opposite,” said Ignis in a soothing tone. “People cope with grief in different ways, Ella. You know that. Many cry but other people get angry at themselves and survivors. Gladio is feeling useless and he thinks Noct is just shutting down. Noct has to rise up again. He needs to take his anger out on the Empire that killed his fiancée Lunafreya. Do you understand?"

Ella nodded and squeaked out a response. “Mm-hmm,” she cried before collapsing into tears again. "But how could he hit me like that?

"He had no right to do that," replied Ignis, rubbing her back. "I will talk to him about that. The Gladio we know is not abusive and I will have to remind him of that. I'll take of it, Ella." 

Ella fell into Ignis and continued crying into his shirt, letting out all the pain and anger that she had been withholding all those weeks. Ignis held her and waited for the storm to pass, not saying a word. Prompto sat back down in the opposite seat face them and took one of Ella’s hands in his own, his own tears running down his cheeks. Through blurred eyes, Ella could see Prompto crying and it only made her cry even more. Seeing the sunshine child of the group so despaired just made the pain more poignant. 

“I hate him,” she wept, referring to Gladio. 

“Today you do,” replied Prompto in a surprisingly even tone, breathing heavily from yelling at the tall man. 

“I’m gonna go lie down,” she said weakly, loosening herself from Ignis and walking away towards the door so she could get to the soft sleeper room they reserved. 

…

As soon as she laid down on her bunk, Ella buried her face into the pillow and wept into it, feeling nothing but pain and grief. She didn’t know what else to do. She felt helpless and weak. All the tension that had been building in the past few weeks finally bubbled to the surface and exploded like a volcano, and it was just as destructive. Everyone was hurt, from the words exchanged to the physical hits. Instinctively, Ella touched her bruised cheek and could feel it pulsate painfully. 

The sound of the door sliding open and shut got her attention and she thought Prompto came in to check on her. 

“Prompto, I’m not in the mood to talk,” she grumbled, burying her face further in the pillow. 

“It’s me,” said a familiar deep, gravelly voice that made her hair stand on end. 

She immediately turned and saw Gladio standing in the room with a guilty look on his face. Normally, she would have been moved but since he hit her, she wasn’t feeling it. Her gaze was cold and unforgiving on him. 

“What do you want, Gladio?” she asked, letting her pain and anguish out in those words. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, tears swimming in his amber eyes. 

Ella’s eyes widened because Gladio never cried. Even when he got news of his father's passing, he didn't cry. What happened that made him so distraught? “Gladio…” she said quietly, letting her body relax a bit. 

The Shield of the King fell to his knees and bowed his head as if waiting for her to hit him. The sight alone made Ella’s heart break. She could see the tears soaking the floor and his form trembling with the effort to hold those tears back. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered again, and she got up to stand before him. “I’m sorry. I should have never hit you. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I was being a total douchebag. If you don’t forgive me, I understand. I just want you to know how sorry I am.” 

Tears poured down Ella’s cheeks, making the bruised one sting, and she fell to her knees in front of Gladio, placing her hands on his shoulders. He didn’t even react to her touch, keeping his eyes focused on the ground. He felt like he didn’t deserve to look at her. 

“Look at me,” she ordered gently, coaxing his chin up with loving fingers. “Look at me, Gladio.” 

When he did, he noticed the ugly bruise that marred her skin and more tears came from him. “How could I hurt you this way?” he asked brokenly, burying his face into her shoulder and soaking the shirt with his tears. “I love you. I love you. I love you, Ella. I’m so sorry…” He took one of her hands and placed it on his cheek. “Hit me. I deserve it.” His words shocked her to the core. 

“No,” gasped Ella, shaking her head and trying to pull her hand away. “Gladio, no. I’m not hitting you. I already hurt you enough. I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did. I was cruel and hurtful. Forgive me.” 

“You were right, though,” he said in a shaky voice. “I was out of line and my father would be ashamed of me. The King’s Shield is sworn to protect the king, not hurt him. King Regis told us to follow Noct, not guide him. I was wrong to talk to him the way I did.” 

Ella wrapped Gladio in a tight hug and could feel the large man trembling under her embrace. “Shh…” she murmured, stroking his untidy black hair. “It’s alright, Gladio. We’ll get through somehow.” 

Gladio buried his face into her neck and began inhaling her natural sweet scent. It made him feel calm. The feel of her slender yet curvy body wrapped around his, the smell of her lotion, the silkiness of her brown hair—it all gave him some comfort. She was the only one who could calm him down whenever he was in the worst of moods. If Ignis chewing him out couldn’t stop him, she could. She was the only one he wanted. When the days would get inevitably darker, they would still have each other to hold onto. 

“I love you, Ella,” he whispered against her neck.

“I love you too, my stubborn Gladio,” she whispered back fondly. 

Gladio made no response to her little quip and continued holding onto her like she was a life preserver. Eventually, the two got up and squeezed into Gladio’s bunk, holding each other. When everything would go to hell, they were each other’s safe harbor. They would hold on even when the ground started shaking and there was nothing they could do. It was true that people did crazy things when they were in love and those two were no different. For the love they held for each other, they would survive and get their home back. One day, the Empire would be defeated and everything would go from there.


End file.
